What was claimed
Visitors to London need to learn Bengali to avoid getting lost, as evidenced by a photo of a sign in Bengali that says Whitechapel Station.
Our verdict
The signage at Whitechapel Station is in both English and Bengali. The photo doesn't show a similar sign next to it saying the same in English.
In recent days, we have seen a number of social media posts about the sign at London’s Whitechapel Station—including one suggesting that visitors would “need to learn the language” of Bengali to read it.
This is missing vital context. While that particular sign is in Bengali, another sign right next to it shows the station’s name in English.
The Bengali sign was installed in March 2022 to honour the Bangladeshi community’s contribution to east London. Tower Hamlets council funded dual language signs throughout the station.
According to the 2021 census, the area has the largest Bangladeshi community in the UK, with 34.6% of residents being of Bangladeshi descent.
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Some other railway stations in the UK have various signs in other languages. For instance, Southall railway station in west London also has bilingual signage in English and Punjabi, the language spoken primarily in the Punjab region of India and Pakistan, while London St Pancras has some signage in English and French as it serves the Eurostar.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context the photo does not include the full dual language signage for Whitechapel Station, which also includes its name in English.
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